De Laurentiis, win the Scudetto in Naples despite hostile forces – Corriere.it

There is a joke, certainly apocryphal, that someone in Naples attributes to Aurelio De Laurentiis: his ideal stadium made up of two grandstands and two giant screens in place of the curves, from which the well-to-do and well-paying can review the main actions. Certainly, the new Italian champion wrote on his Whatsapp profile: My availability of free tickets is exhausted for the rest of the season. For a fee you can find them in the official channels.

Naples champion of Italy: the reactions, the celebrations, the story

Winning a Scudetto in Naples is not for everyone. Especially if you win it not with but in spite of Naples (saying against Naples would be too much): both that of the ultras and that of the VIPs who ask for free tickets.

Until now the tricolor had only conquered it Conrad Ferlaino, in two championships marked by the genius of Maradona, who seemed made on purpose to confirm what Don Benedetto Croce said – Naples is a paradise inhabited by devils -, Goethe – where the light is stronger, the darkest shadow – and the prince of San Severo, the one of the veiled Christ and of alchemical experiments, according to which the existence of great virtues without great vices is not given to human weakness. And in Naples, Italy’s cross and delight, our virtues and our vices are cubed.

This shield is considered by some of the city as not very Neapolitan. We don’t say it, but a site called The Napolista
. And not only because Aurelio De Laurentiis a Roman by birth and training, and his uncle Dino had emigrated to America; even if he claims to feel Neapolitan, because the most beautiful childhood memory is the ragout with which grandmother Giuseppina seasoned the candles or the steaming ziti.

This Naples champion of Italy was born in the open hostility of the fans. Last summer it seemed that with the farewell of Lorenzo the Magnificent Insigne, Kalidou K2 Koulibaly and Dries Ciro Mertens, the Azzurri would have fought for the Conference zone. Nothing good could come of that Georgian with an unpronounceable name; and even mister Spalletti was surrounded by skepticism.

The entire rise of De Laurentiis, moreover, took place without ever complying with the pressure of the square; ever since the fans pressed for the purchase of Fabio Cannavaro, and he not only didn’t take it but also deprived himself of his brother Paolo, guilty of the mistake that had cost him elimination in the Champions League with Chelsea.

The summer in which De Laurentiis bought the club, there were also no balls and shirts for training: captain Francesco Montervino went to buy them in a sports shop in Paestum. It was 2004, and Napoli was playing with Sora and Vis Pesaro. One of the first measures was to have the San Paolo guarded, after it was discovered that an employee of the Municipality was hiding a powder magazine there. Zero tolerance with the violent who entered showing the gun instead of the ticket. For his part, prosecutor Melillo indicted twelve thugs from a group with the ominous name Bronx. If the Camorra at the stadium counts for less today, also thanks to the new course of Napoli.

There is a point on which a harmony has been created between De Laurentiis and the city, starting from the alleged arbitration wrongs (I think I have won many championships says the president): the lament against the North. De Laurentiis claims that this city is the truly important brand of Italy, but the Italians have never understood it. Indeed, only Garibaldi understood it when he brought all the riches of the South to the North, snatching, delaying and throwing us into total chaos.

To tell the truth, Garibaldi took with him from Naples just a few hundred lire raised without his knowledge from a lieutenant, a sack of seeds for the Caprera farm, a sack of broad beans which he was fond of and a box of dried cod. On one point, De Laurentiis is right: Naples is a decisive city in defining Italian identity. Abroad, they think of Italy as an immense Naples: the sun, the sea, the pizza. it is also right to think of Tot’s cinema, Eduardo’s theatre, great popular music, the art of Mimmo Paladino, Mimmo and Francesco Jodice, Lello Esposito. And also to that of Matteo Politano, Giovanni Di Lorenzo and obviously Victor Osimhen, to whom a hymn that looks like a Gregorian chant has been dedicated.

In reality, the link with the city comes to De Laurentiis in particular from the myth of Dino, born in Torre Annunziata and died in Beverly Hills, always practicing the art of getting by. My uncle left Naples on a fishing boat with Mario Soldati, Steno and Leo Longanesi. First they had been to Capri: they collected the bottles of soda thrown away by the American soldiers, filled them in the sea and resold them for a dollar with the inscription water from the Blue Grotto – the president likes to tell -. Then they landed in Palermo and hoarded the foodstuffs: half they brought back to Naples to those who had ordered them, the other half they sold on the market.

If it has a model, the first Berlusconi. I met him in Venice, it was 1978. He wore long hair and high-heeled boots, among intellectuals who had eaten a broomstick. I immediately liked him. The traitor, Higuain: It was my intuition. At Real he was on the bench. I paid 38 million for it. Naples gave him a lot. a city that has a great need to love. Self-harming, unable to see the truth. Submissive for centuries, always looking for a ransom linked to something impossible; which becomes possible with football. The great love, the wife: the only film producer in the world who has been with the same woman for half a century. I am still very much in love with her. They say you are rude; I’m actually a romantic.

Once a director asked his father: But why is Aurelio always pissed off, unpleasant, harsh?. Luigi De Laurentiis replied: You didn’t understand that, when Aurelio sends someone to fuck off, it happens.